Advertisers Lack The Education To Keep Up With Technology

October 12, 2017

It's becoming increasingly harder to make intelligent media-buying decisions when using emerging technologies like blockchain and programmatic. While technologies like these move the advertising industry forward, some insiders believe that many marketers lack the knowledge to support this growth.

Findings from marketers in a Kantar Millward Brown study suggest that when multiple technologies don’t integrate seamlessly or in real time, humans, not machines, need to manage the complexity.

Some 57% of agencies and 52% of advertisers perceive the need for mostly human insight and some automation. When it comes to just human insight, those numbers drop to 23% and 25%, respectively.

Findings like these give Will Margiloff, CEO at IgnitionOne, fodder to talk about how the "industry's missing the smarts" on how to manage campaigns running on new and emerging technologies, especially when it comes to programmatic.

IgnitionOne, which was spun out from holding company Dentsu in a management-led buyout in 2013, works with companies like Bridgstone, Mazda, and Oreck.

"It's not as easy as people think," Margiloff said. "There's complexity that cannot get solved through technology. We have plenty of customers who want self-service platforms, but they don't have anyone to run them. They need help."

Margiloff said there's a "drought of talent" -- not just in programmatic, but across digital. Marketers want to move a lot faster than they have the resources and knowledge to do so.

Individual companies can help to support marketers at brands, but it's not enough.

Margiloff says some universities offer classes on emerging tech, like programmatic, but not many. New York University, for example, does entrepreneurial studies that analyze how buys are moving toward a more addressable media, he says.

"Some of the changes relate to out-of-home moving to a more digital format," he says, "There's also addressable TV. These big channels are quick to put large percentages of their inventory into a system that allows marketers to purchase the media in an automated way."

There's actually no shortage of options to get educated. Adobe, MediaMath, Interactive Advertising Bureau, and others now offer certification in programmatic programs.

The faster technology changes, the more buyers and planners will need to get educated. It takes time.